Exchanging text messages across the world's 700 GSM networks will become a reality following the successful completion of the second phase of the GSM Association's trials of a hub-based interoperability structure. First unveiled in February 2006, the GSMA's new hub-based structure will deliver major operational and financial efficiencies to mobile operators by removing the need to reach time-consuming bilateral inter-working agreements. Now that the trials are complete, the GSMA expects operators to begin using the hub system for live delivery of commercial text messages before the end of 2006 enabling them to extend to the international SMS service to the full GSM community and beyond. More than one trillion text messages were sent globally last year and international traffic is growing rapidly, placing pressure on operators to replace the existing web of bilateral agreements with a more efficient structure for the delivery of messages across the GSM networks in 215 countries and territories.

The GSMA's new structure means operators will only have to connect once to a hub to reach all the other networks connected to that hub. Moreover, through interconnect arrangements between hubs, they will be able to reach operators connected to other hubs. This combined solution ensures that operators and their customers will benefit from a high level of service quality, including reliable delivery reports and protection against spam, security, billing and settlement, while maintaining the independence of each operator to determine its own pricing structures.

The second phase of the hubbing trial began in early September and involved 26 operators in more than 20 countries, spanning four continents. Thirteen SMS hub providers also took part in the trial - Aicent, Belgacom ICS, Clickatell, CITIC Telecom 1616, Comfone, Radius-ED, MACH/End2End, Mobile 365, Syniverse Technologies, Telecom Italia Sparkle, TeliaSonera, Tyntec and VeriSign.
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